Lee Radford was left lamenting a rampant St Helens outfit after they inflicted Hull FC ’s second biggest defeat of the Super League campaign.

The Black and Whites travelled to Merseyside full of confidence after overcoming Hull KR in such emphatic fashion on Good Friday, but they were powerless to stop Saints from running riot at the Totally Wicked Stadium, winning 62-16.

It's the second time this season Hull have conceded over 60 points, following their record 63-12 loss at the KCOM Stadium to Warrington at the end of March.

Hull started quickly and scored two early tries through Joe Westerman and Carlos Tuimavave, but from there on in, it was an onslaught as Hull fell to their first defeat in six on the road.

Kevin Naiqama scored four of Saints’ 11 tries, while Adam Swift scored three and Jonny Lomax bagged two on a day to forget for Hull. Radford was understandably abrupt come his post-match press conference.

The head coach spoke for just one minute and 29 seconds after the game, as he struggled to justify such a poor display, but admitted his side simply could not live with the rampant Saints.

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“Opposition,” Radford replied, when asked how he explained the difference in performance over the space of one Easter weekend.

Asked when it started to go wrong for Hull, Radford expanded a little further: “About 15 minutes in, they sort of kicked on into a gear that we unfortunately just couldn’t match.

Scott Taylor of Hull FC is tackled against St Helens

“The two disallowed tries obviously had an impact on the game, but they probably were forward passes both of them so we can’t argue with them.

“Heads certainly dropped after that. I just think it’s the second time we’ve played the top two teams, these and Warrington, and the clear dominance of their middle has been really astoundingly worrying. We brought six kids in who hadn’t played on Friday and that’s unfortunate for the six.”

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Hull had been hoping to move up to third in the Super League rankings at the Totally Wicked Stadium, but unfortunately, Wakefield’s result against Leeds sees the Black and Whites drop to fifth, behind Trinity, who they host on Sunday.

As such, Radford highlighted the importance of responding in the right manner.

“It’s back to the drawing board and it’s a big one on Sunday,” he added. “If that’s the top two then clearly we have some way to get to that and that highlights the importance of Sunday.”